Wednesday, April 16, 2014

The kids and I decided to go to the grand opening because I needed groceries, anyway. I had read in the news that they were expecting a big crowd, including traffic police. We soldiered on, undeterred! They weren't kidding. There were long car lines coming from every direction, trying to get in. At first, I thought, "Forget this; we'll come back another time." But as I circled back around, I thought, "All of these people must want in for a reason! We can't miss out!" And the longer we waited, we more I felt I NEEDED IN! So I circled around and around until finally the policeman ushered me into an available parking spot.

The 5 of us walked slowly through the crowds, taking in every aisle. The kids eyed the samples as they generally do, like you would assume it is the first food they've had all day. I felt as I have before - that Trader Joe's isn't as vegan friendly as Whole Foods. They just don't have everything I want or need. And there seems to be ambiguous sugar in everything packaged. What is all of this sugar? Does my obsessive compulsive bone sugar aversion want to eat it?

However, we clearly found plenty of things to purchase. I made mental notes of all the great prices. I have really been wanting to make a page that tells me which stores I frequent have the best price for each item we buy. (For example: Daiya is $4.79 at Nutrition Smart, $4.99 at Whole Foods, and a whopping almost $5.59 at Winn Dixie. This is important information to us because we love our Daiya.) What do you recommend I buy at Trader Joe's as opposed to other places?

The good news: when I fill my cart like this at Whole Foods, I know I'm looking toward at least a $350 debit. My full cart at Trader Joe's: a little over $150!

That night, we finally joined the club.

I splurged on these instant download printable popcorn boxes which were a few dollars on Etsy. They were so cute and fun, I don't know if I can go back to popcorn in bowls. (The kids decorated the table with handmade snowflakes.)

I also printed off these for our "party."

Look at the guy in the back. How happy is he?

I had really been craving icecream cake recently. When I was little and stopped eating eggs first, I always had an icecream cake for my birthday so it feels nostalgic to me. I don't remember what all of these layers were. I know there were cookie crumbles for the crust, there was vanilla, there were crumbled Justin's pb cups...

It ended up being better the next day as I hadn't allowed it to freeze long enough before we tried cutting into it. But it achieved its Frozen-themed purpose. And I'm glad I got it out of my system because it reminded me that I'm just not a huge icecream person anymore. (Soft serve is a different story.) My kids totally loved it, though, and thoroughly appreciated it. And I had to listen to Let it Go in the car on repeat for about two weeks straight.